Ocellus (Sony), marker-free camera tracking system, to debut at NAB 2025

Sony will unveil during NAB 2025 (April 6-9, Las Vegas) its first camera tracking system: Ocellus (ASR-CT1), designed to simplify and facilitate augmented reality and virtual production applications in broadcast and cinema without markers.

Le nouveau Ocellus system, consisting of a sensor unit, a processing box and three target encoders, creates a reference map that enables stable markerless tracking both indoors and outdoors by taking advantage of its five image sensors and Sony’s Visual SLAM technology. This system, compatible with Sony Cinema Line cameras and third-party solutions, sends the camera’s position and orientation data as it is recording, supported by an entire metadata system.

When using Sony cameras, metadata relating to the focus, iris and zoom values of the camera and lens can be obtained via the camera’s SDI output and transmitted in real time to external devices via an Ethernet cable. If the lens does not support metadata acquisition through the camera, lens encoders can be placed on the camera to obtain this metadata. The acquired metadata, including tracking data, camera/lens metadata, timecode and filename, can be used for the post-production workflow.

With easy installation and position adjustment via NATO rail mounting hardware, the system offers connection to the processing box via a single USB Type-C cable; transmission from the processing device in real time of tracking data and camera/lens metadata to CG rendering software such as Unreal Engine via Ethernet cable in free-d format; Genlock input; support for recording tracking data and metadata as FBX files to SDXC memory cards; and an OLED display for checking IP address, tracking information and lens data.

Sebastian Leske, head of business development for Sony’s Cinema Line, puts the value on the new Ocellus, which is due for release in the last quarter of 2025: “The growing market for virtual production and AR demands simpler and more efficient workflows. Metadata such as camera position and lens values are crucial for pre-production and post-production. Our new camera tracking system delivers valuable data in real time, improving efficiency based on feedback from content creators around the world.”